Robert Keane

Complex Challenges of Maintaining Whitebark Pine in Greater Yellowstone under Climate Change: A Call for Innovative Research, Management, and Policy Approaches

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Data Visualization & Tools, North Central CASC, Plants, Science Tools For Managers, Wildlife and Plants

Guidelines and Best Practices for Managing Fire in Whitebark Pine Stands in the Crown of the Continent

This document details a fire management strategy for facilitating the restoration of whitebark pine on subalpine landscapes of the Crown of the Continent (COTC). The heart of the management strategy is Table 1 that specifies the most appropriate fire management action, including prescribed fires, before, during and after a wildfire. This report first justifies the need for special attention in fire management practices when in the upper subalpine landscapes of the COTC. Next, we detail a set of management actions that will enhance whitebark pine restoration before and during a wildfire. All restoration actions, including mechanical thinnings, prescribed burning, and wildland fire use, are also fuel treatment...

Categories: Data; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: EARTH SCIENCE > LAND SURFACE > LANDSCAPE, Federal resource managers, LCC Network Science Catalog, Policy makers & regulators, Report, All tags... State agencies, completed, environment, Fewer tags

2013 Proposal: Developing management guidelines for creating resilient whitebark pine ecosystems in the northern Rocky Mountains using spatial simulation modeling

Landscape simulation modeling will be used to develop detailed management guidelines for restoring and sustaining whitebark pine under future climates, accounting for the principal stressors that threaten its persistence (exotic disease infections, mountain pine beetles, and fire exclusion policies). We will build on existing work, including the 2012 publication A Range-Wide Restoration Strategy for Whitebark Pine Forests and existing simulation areas within critical whitebark pine habitat. This project will create a robust and trans-boundary set of management tools for creating resistant and resilient whitebark pine forests within the Rocky Mountains, USA and Canada.

2015 Proposal: Evaluating management alternatives to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on whitebark pine ecosystems in the Greater Yellowstone using landscape simulation modeling

Existing climate change science and guidance for restoring and maintaining whitebark pine forests will be evaluated using landscape simulation modeling to inform implementation of the Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee (GYCC) Whitebark Pine (WBP) subcommittee’s “WBP Strategy”. We will design a “no constraints” management scenario based on the GYCC WBP Strategy and 2015 publication Restoring whitebark pine ecosystems in the face of climate change and incorporating the latest projections of future climate suitability for WBP and other landscape stressors (mountain pine beetles, competing species, wildland fire). We will use the landscape simulation model FireBGCv2 to simulate interactions of future climate,...

Complex Challenges of Maintaining Whitebark Pine in Greater Yellowstone under Climate Change:

Climate suitability is projected to decline for many subalpine species, raising questions about managing species under a deteriorating climate. Whitebark pine (WBP) (Pinus albicaulis) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) crystalizes the challenges that natural resource managers of many high mountain ecosystems will likely face in the coming decades. We review the system of interactions among climate, competitors, fire, bark beetles, white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), and seed dispersers that make WBP especially vulnerable to climate change. A well-formulated interagency management strategy has been developed for WBP, but it has only been implemented across <1% of the species GYE range. The challenges...